Matt Cavanaugh, the Army combat veteran and author who has been running an independent campaign to unseat first-term Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank in Colorado’s 5th Congressional District, registered this week as a Democrat and will seek the party’s nomination for the seat.

Cavanaugh told Colorado Politics that his principles haven’t changed, but the former “lifelong independent” determined that the best way to defeat Crank is to consolidate the opposition and make it a two-way race in November.

“The stakes couldn’t be higher,” Cavanaugh said in a statement. “Because of Rep. Crank’s unwillingness to be a check on Donald Trump, health care costs are spiraling and everyday essentials are becoming even more unaffordable, while elites in Washington get tax breaks and special treatment.”

He’s joining an already crowded primary in the historically Republican district, which mostly shares its boundaries with El Paso County.

The leading Democrat in the race is Jessica Killin, an Army veteran and former chief of staff to second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who raised more than $1 million in her first quarter in the race and has won endorsements from every Democratic member of the state’s congressional delegation.

Cavanaugh said he’s raised “six figures” as an independent since announcing his candidacy in October and expects to go toe-to-toe with Killin in the June primary.

“The No. 1 consideration for this is just how urgent the moment is,” he said in an interview. “If people feel like the country is going in the wrong way — whether it’s health care costs, boat strikes, corruption, or revenge politics — now is the time to make a change. And it matters now, because the central political question of our time is whether the damage being done right now is limited or lasting.”

Added Cavanaugh: “And the fastest way for us to ensure that damage is limited is to fire Jeff Crank and make the House of Representatives a majority of rational vertebrates with the spine to stick up for all of us.”

Democrats have expressed confidence that the district is primed to elect a Democrat for the first time since its creation in the early 1970s, citing its changing demographics and rapid shifts toward Democratic candidates in recent elections. The district was one of only a few in the country where Vice President Kamala Harris outperformed Joe Biden’s 2020 results.

Crank, a former political consultant and podcaster, won the election in 2024 by a 14-point margin following the retirement of former nine-term Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, though that margin was less than half the advantage Lamborn enjoyed just eight years earlier.

Heading into this year’s midterms, House Republicans are defending the narrowest majority held by either party in nearly a century, with just three seats required to flip control of the chamber. Nonpartisan election analysts at Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales moved the 5th CD one step toward competitive territory last year, calling the district “still difficult territory for Democrats, but in a wave year could be competitive.”

Cavanaugh said he’ll be able to assemble a winning coalition of voters frustrated with the country’s direction, noting that a majority of the district’s electorate is registered as unaffiliated.

“There’s still a long way to go, and I’m excited to offer a fresh, outsider approach to build that coalition of Democrats, independents and Republicans,” he said. “And, you know, watch this space, because we’ve got some exciting news coming in the next few weeks and months that will continue that momentum towards building that coalition.”

Cavanaugh said he plans to continue using a line that has resonated with voters on the campaign trail.

“If you want no kings, then it starts with no Cranks,” he said. “I think that’s a line that connects with a lot of voters here in Colorado Springs.”

A recipient of two Bronze Stars and the Combat Action Badge for his service in Iraq, Cavanaugh co-founded the Modern War Institute at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and was named U.S. Army Athlete of the Year. His donation of a kidney to a stranger across the country in 2021 sparked what he describes as a chain of donations that saved another seven patients and led to his recent role as president and CEO of the National Kidney Donation Organization.

Cavanaugh holds the record as the fastest American to race the 4 Deserts Grand Slam ultramarathon series and won the race across Antarctica in 2022, after donating his kidney — in an attempt, he’s said, to demonstrate that kidney donation doesn’t hinder a donor’s future accomplishment. His book about the experience, “Best Scar Wins: How You Can Be More Than You Were Before,” was published last month.

Cavanaugh and his ex-wife both live in Manitou Springs, where they’re jointly raising their two daughters.